Inside The Obesity Collective

DO NOT MISS this explosive episode of All Fired Up! The Obesity Collective is a sparkly new organisation gaining attention nationwide for its ostensibly ‘collaborative’ approach to ‘tackling’ obesity, whilst simultaneously erasing weight stigma (oh please how much of a mindboggle is that?!). But who are they really? My guest this week is Mandy-Lee Noble, anti-diet dietitian from Nourished Approach in Brisbane, and she has had a GUTFUL of industry interests penetrating our health narrative. Once we dug a little deeper into The Obesity Collective we found that the tentacles of Big Pharma have a firm hold on the goolies of all our so-called ‘independent’ Obesity organisations. You won’t believe how deep this goes. Next time you read a hysterical news headline highlighting the terrors of Obesity Epidemic, know who funded it!

ShowNotes

Content warning and Apology !! This episode contains multiple uses of the word ‘obesity’. This is a stigmatising term and not one I nor my guest Mandy Lee Noble are comfortable using. However, as the topic of this episode is all about an organisation called The Obesity Collective, there are a lot of “O” words used. There are also lots of swear words to make up for it! My guest, dietitian Mandy-Lee Noble is all fired up about conflicts of interest and vested interests in health care, and within weight centric research and industries in particular. Mandy & Louise fell down a massive rabbithole when they accidentally stumbled across a particularly troubling example of this, the subject of today’s podcast. During a HAES Australia leadership meeting, we came across the “Obesity Australia” website, and their “fact sheets” were rather hilarious. These fact sheets contained not just outdated, but frankly very bizarre advice regarding weight loss. “Obesity Australia” are ostensibly one of Australia’s leading ‘authorities’ on obesity, and many of the country’s leading researchers, practitioners etc, are involved. And yet the fact sheets look like they were thrown together by either a year 9 school boy or an elderly person with very little connection to the real world. One of the ‘fact’ sheets was about drinks you should be having to lose weight, written by former head of Obesity Australia John Funder, whose diet tips have come directly from 1935. He recommends “egg flips” and “Miss Muffett’s favourite tipple, curds and whey”. Does ANYONE know what an egg flip is? And what about curds and whey?? He then goes on to rage against fish and chips, and goes on a bizarre rant telling us to strip the fish and chips of batter, and ‘put it amongst the pickled onion’. What is he even talking about here? Where did the pickled onion even come from? 1970? John also has a huge grudge against potato crisps, which he says are ‘lethal’. Now Mandy, being a bit of a rebel, has on several occasions since reading that thrown caution to the wind and deliberately and vigorously eaten said lethal crisps, and has lived to tell the tale. Another tip was to ‘drink coke zero’, to ‘fool yourself into eating slightly less’. This tip appears to have come from Weight Watchers in circa 1980. Mandy believes this may work through the process of being forced to eat slightly less because you have no teeth! Seriously what’s with the totally SHIT advice here? This is from a highly regarded and very knowledgeable researcher? It’s encouraging behaviours that overall are not hugely health supportive, all in the name of weight loss! John also ‘recommends’ that a ‘rule of thumb’ is to always weigh the same as you did at the age of 25, even if we have less bone and muscle mass as a result. All of the actual research would contest that: there is a plethora of evidence to show that as we age we do get heavier, and preserving muscle mass as we age is very health supportive. It’s quite literally the opposite of what science tells us. People at a higher body mass are actually often healthier than smaller people as they age. Some of the informa